It's obviously too early to tell with the second group. Did he have to settle on White & Marsh and that's why they're now at the programs they're at or are they diamonds in the rough? Who knows (but sign me up for Okojie over Marsh at this point). Here's hoping he found a stud in Austin Ball, don't really care what happens with the others.
To preface, I certainly don't want anything I say to come off as intentionally negative toward any of the players. I'll attempt to frame my comments solely from a KE standpoint.
KE never seemed to be overly comfortable recruiting at Mason. He was great at identifying high level talent, it just wasn't talent that was ever going to seriously consider Mason. Harris-Smith, Hansberry, Kaiser, Carrington, Williams, Posey, Lowe, Abraham, Ngongba, etc. These were all seen and promoted as "priorities" for months, even after it was clear most were unattainable. (Which could lead a conspiracy theorist to infer that KE could've been 1) Developing relationships for potential future transfer 2) Recruiting guys for his next stop)
After that group, there didn't really seem to be a plan other than getting 3-point shooting. Barron and Ball were nice, sensible gets. I am a bit surprised Barron ended up at Providence given what his recruitment looked like. I have every belief that Ball will be a solid contributor for Mason in the future, and I'm thrilled he chose to stay.
Regarding White & Marsh: My opinion is that they fit the description of guys who the staff had to scramble to "discover" because they wasted too much time on the aforementioned unattainable priorities. Not sure White was even on the radar until Peach Jam 2022, and Marsh was even later.
Our new staff is going to miss on guys, stay on guys too long, over-value, etc, but overall, I think they are far better equipped to have significant recruiting success here than the English regime.
